“But test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.”
Our companies have to be very cognizant and aware of appearances. While we think we understand what others might be thinking about us, we mat not truly because we don’t either entirely know or have not controlled the message well enough. Companies hire public relations people and firms for just this reason. We have to be careful about how our companies are associated with someone else, with political groups, lobbyists, vendors, etc. In the start-up world there is this shift of the company that takes place right before the company is to go public. The shift happens at the senior management level and with the Board. Sometimes these new people are great for the company and their ability to manage in a public environment. Other times it is just about appearances to create confidence with the public shareholders. Appearances do matter and we have to cognizant and aware of what those appearances are.
Each and every day in our jobs we also have to manage our appearances. The decisions we make can also have a huge impact on others and what they think of us, our reputations and the example we are trying to live into. As we make these decisions and think about what the right thing to do is we can pull those decisions through the filter of what type of appearances will this create. This is especially important in that we must ensure that there would not be any appearance of us doing the wrong thing. Even what is in the news today about decisions people made years ago about who to tell, what to tell, and when to tell, has come back to haunt and brought down careers. We can question judgment but we also are affected by the appearance of the wrong doings that have now become irreparable reputation killers. The decisions we make today are unlikely this big, but even still, that decision on how to respond or how to act create appearances about how others think of us and for that we must be careful.
Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 (New Living Testament)